How to Get Into the Ivy League Colleges: An Introduction

Welcome to my blog on How to Get into the Ivy League Colleges.

The fact that you have stumbled upon this page means that you either are or have a student who is interested in attending one of the 8 most elite universities in the United States: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell. You want to have a wonderful future full of opportunities after graduating from the most exclusive colleges in the country, and perhaps even the world.

But you also know that admission into one of these colleges is not an easy task. With acceptance rates dropping every year to even single digit percentages, you feel that your bright future is slipping away. You hear all sorts of things from all sorts of books, friends, brochures, and counselors on what you should and should not do. “Just be yourself,” “show your passion,” “take the SAT in March,” “volunteer,” “work,” “join clubs,” “apply early decision,” etcetera, etcetera. With the overload of so much (contradicting) advice, you don’t know which ones to follow and who to believe.

What you will find in this blog is simply the truth about the college admissions process from the point of view of a student who has been through the entire experience, and has seen many others who have also been through the same experience.

I can tell you which strategies have worked for us, and what ones have not. I graduated from an elite high school where 1 in every 4 students (of a class size of 800) goes to an Ivy League college. Being in such close interaction with so many friends who are also attending top colleges, I can tell you which habits and which decisions will get you there too. I will tell you all about the SATs, the SAT 2s, the grades, the essays, the recommendations, the volunteer hours, and the interviews and what is the best way to approach each one.

In hindsight, I sometimes wish that I had known all this information when I was still a high school junior who was just about to devote his next two years to this confusing process of college applications. I always regret the enormous time and effort I have wasted doing the wrong things and so little time spent on the right things.

Nonetheless, here I am, writing from the library of Columbia University, so that you won’t make the same mistakes I had. In the upcoming weeks, I will be putting all these thoughts and experiences down on paper (well…on your screen) in this blog. I hope that will take at least some weight off your shoulders.


I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season! =)